Cong pins hope for 1 LS, 9-17 Assembly seats

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Bhubaneswar: The Congress party has made a gloomy prediction of the 2019 Assembly and Lok Sabha (LS) poll outcome in Odisha. As per reports, nominees of the grand old party are not the main contenders in many Assembly and Parliamentary constituencies in Odisha.
According to an assessment done by some Congress leaders, the party candidates are the main contenders in four LS seats – Nabarangpur, Kalahandi, Koraput and Sundargarh. However, the party nominees may be pushed to third positions in Parliamentary constituencies like Balasore, Dhenkanal, Bolangir, Puri, Cuttack, Bargarh, Sambalpur, Kandhamal, Jagatsinghpur, Bhadrak, Berhampur, Kendrapara, Keonjhar and Jajpur.
It is worth mentioning here that, the Congress party has left three Lok Sabha seats—Aska, Bhubaneswar and Mayurbhanj—to its allies.
The party was unable to win a single LS seat in Odisha in 2014 elections. It had won six LS seats—Balasore, Bargarh, Sundargarh, Nabarangpur, Kalahandi and Sambalpur—and 16 Assembly seats in 2009 elections.
This time, the party is pinning hope to winning Nabarangpur LS seat only.
According to a Congress leader, his party nominees are the main contenders in 31 to 33 Assembly segments this time.
Among these 33 seats, there are triangular contests in Dhenkanal, Angul, Athamallik, Kakatpur, Basudevpur, Laxmipur, Paralakhemundi, Biramaharajpur and Basta segments.
According to sources in Odisha Pradesh Congress Committee, party nominees have given a tough fight to Biju Janata Dal (BJD) candidates in Assembly constituencies like Jagatsinghpur, Paradip, Bolangir, Kantabanji, Titilagrh, Jatni, Begunia, Jeypore, Koraput, Anandapur, Barabati-Cuttack, Banki, Kendrapara, Rajnagar, Aul, Bhandaripokhari, Baliguda, Biramitrapur, Titilagarh, Kotpad and Sanakhemundi.
However, the party believes that it would do well in Assembly seats like Talasara, Dabugaon, Pottangi, Nabarangpur and Bhograi. Keeping this in view, the party expects that it would win nine to 17 Assembly seats in this election.
Earlier, the Bharatiya Janata Party had claimed that they could win at least 68 Assembly seats and 13 LS seats in Odisha this time.
On the other hand, an internal assessment of BJD claimed that the regional party could win 100-104 Assembly seats and 13 to 15 LS seats in state.